Also Titled: The case for sanctioning a full on, nuclear war between North and South Korea, broadcast on Fox Sports (I’d watch it). I know I’m going to get my ass flamed off for this, so I took the liberty of wearing my Trogdor underpants.
As many of you know, Ragnarok Online recently went free again. As many of those people know, I couldn’t download it until last night, when Daemoness gave me some funky program that date raped Ausgamer’s server…while I don’t know if I’m comfortable with having someone that hax0r savvy on my IM list, I still erected a small shrine in her honour in my bedroom and sacrificed a large starling to it last night, and said many prayers to the gods of horror that she may be blessed and kept safe from harm.
At least, I THINK it was a starling…but I digress.
The point is, I installed, I played. And very little has changed. It made me cry. The stuff that made me give up RO back when it was free before, made me surrender again. I thought the point of an OPEN BETA was so that mistakes could be corrected. Maybe, I dunno, everyone who e-mailed Gravity did it in ENGLISH, which they clearly have no understanding of despite their claim that they just hired someone who SPEAKS IT MOTHERFUCKER.
Anyway, here’s the breakdown.
What’s changed? Well, first, the patching program works. Or maybe there were just a lot FEWER patches to download, but it managed to patch and move on. Secondly, there’s a “tutorial” before you enter the world of Ragnarok. Problem is, however, the english these people speak is so bastardized, understanding what they say is a game on its own. So the tutorial is nigh useless. However, it also gives you a test to see what class you should take, that was nice.
Now, what HASN’T changed? For one, the XP curve, possibly my least favourite part of the game. It puts the first 30-45 minutes of your standard Dragon Warrior game to shame, it’s that bad. The typical monster takes too long to fight, does too much damage and gives too little XP. And since you can’t go on to your class without first mastering the “Novice” class (the job everyone starts out in) you need to gather a LOT of XP. The Novice class is another major problem. You need to actually advance in its levels before you can do stuff that, normally, everyone should be able to do. Like emoticons, or sitting down, or forming chat rooms and parties. That you need to fight 130 porings before you can SIT YOUR LEATHER-CLAD ASS DOWN is a pure insult.
The servers haven’t improved much, still preety sluggish. The english, as I’ve mentioned before, actually has gotten WORSE instead of better. Why they released this beta to the US and Australia if they weren’t going to bother equipping us with decent servers or learning our fucking language…also an insult.
Lastly, is it just me or is stuff TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE? I probably will need to fight another 650 or so monsters before I’ll have the fluff and other crap neccessary to sell for pennies in order to accumulate the Zeny (the currency in this game) needed to buy ONE FUCKING PIECE OF EQUIPMENT (I already have a Sword, but that’s all they give you, at least if you’re a swordsman), and odds are fighting those monsters will be a LOT easier had I had that shield/armor TO FUCKING BEGIN WITH!
In conclusion, it seems Gravity is not keen on learning from their errors. That, or no one has bothered to point out to them that they even exist. Perhaps I’ll send them an e-mail. Nah, they wouldn’t understand it. Anyway, it shocks me that a country that appreciates Diablo so much that it’s a leading cause of death (6 hours in an Internet Cafe) can’t come close to duplicating it without me feeling that pouring tabasco into my iris would be a more fun way to waste my time.
